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Fiction Corner

Thanks to all of you who entered the contest in November.To find out who won, go to the new Contest Corner. Also on that page are introductions to the judges, and an explanation of how we judged the entries.We had a lot of fun reading them!

I have a new competition for you this month, but it needs some explaining.I want people to send in a Drabble on the subject of change or new starts. Don’t know what a Drabble is?  You’re about to find out.I’ll start with the rules of Drabble writing.

Drabble Rules: The One Hundred Word Variant by David B. Wake

Introduction
Drabble is played sitting around a fire, while sipping brandy and partaking of pleasant conversation with friends. The first person to finish a novel wins.

A Doubtful History
The first game of Drabble, a name coined in a "Monty Python" sketch, was played at the beginning of the last century. The winner was Mary Shelley with "Frankenstein" and Polidori, who didn't actually finish during that stormy weekend, came second with "The Vampyre."

The Rules
"One hundred words" must be EXACTLY one hundred words: not a syllable more, not a letter less. In addition, up to fifteen words (title, sub-titles and the like) are allowed. Hyphenated-words-are-argued-about.

The End

(Published here with kind permission from the author)

Sounds simple really, until you complete the Drabble and find you have one hundred and four words, and start raking over your work trying to see what can be eliminated, then going down to ninety nine words and looking to fit just one little word in somewhere...

You can find more information about Drabbles, and plenty of examples at The Drabble Project Homepage at http://www.cix.co.uk/~robm/drabble.htm.

 The Drabble Project raised money for charity from the sale of books.   The first book was published in 1988 and contained one hundred Drabbles from noted science fiction authors, some of whom are included on the web site.There were two other Drabble books published, one (Double Century) of which is still available.   Sadly Drabble Who, a collection of Doctor Who Drabbles written by Doctors, companions, script-writers, producers and fans is no longer available.

Here’s an example Drabble:

Impatience

She saw fear in his eyes.  The gun he held shook as he spat out his demand. She calmly ignored him. He went to her desk and shook the gun.
Still she ignored him.
He swept her papers off the desk, yelling his demand again.That got her attention.
"Can’t you read? Bank robbers to cashier number FIVE. I’m cashier number FOUR!"
He looked guilty. 
"But your queue’s shorter than his."
"That’s no excuse for queue jumping!"
Glumly he trudged to the back of the queue waiting for cashier number five.She gathered her papers and composed herself.
"Next please!"

With so few words to play with, your Drabble must get to the point fast.It can be funny or sad, contain conflict or peace. Just stick to the word limit.

Contest Rules and other information
The deadline for submitting your Drabble is February 15th 1999.
We will be abiding by the Drabble Rules stated above.
The word count is EXACTLY one hundred words, no more and no less.
Any Drabbles that come in at two hundred words, with half of them hyphenated to the other half will get bonus marks for deviousness, but will regrettably be disqualified.
Entries that include explicit sex, violence, gore, or horror will not be accepted.

The theme is change and/or new starts, in honour of the New Year and the coming Millennium.

As before, the entries will be judged by at least two independent judges who will be announced after the judging is over.

I’d like to make Drabbles a regular feature--a "Drabble of the Month." It’s a great writing exercise, focused and concise. You can’t ramble in a Drabble.

Any questions or comments about the contest and Drabbles, feel free to mail me.